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Myanmar troops kill five Indian
soldiers in border ambush: AFP

A large Myanmar army contingent attacked a border post of the Assam Rifles paramilitary agency in Mon district of adjoining Nagaland, an official said.

"It appears to be a case of mistaken identity as the Myanmarese army thought our soldiers to be outlawed militants and started firing," Lukhei Sema, the police chief of Nagaland, told AFP over the telephone from the state capital Kohima.

The Myanmar troops were "probably" on the lookout for militants of the banned National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) along the border when they came upon the Indian outpost, Sema said.

In New Delhi, defence ministry officials were not immediately available for comment, but sources said the government would be in touch soon with Myanmar for details of the incident.

The NSCN is a group of Indian guerrillas fighting for an independent tribal homeland. Their bases are in regions between Chin and Kachin districts in northwest Myanmar, bordering Nagaland.

An NSCN spokesman said its militants were the intended target of the ambush.

"The military junta was planning to attack our headquarters and they mistook the Assam Rifles soldiers to be our cadres and killed them", the spokesman told AFP.

Myanmar authorities have launched a crackdown against the Indian guerrillas. In February, at least 40 Myanmar soldiers were killed by the NSCN in a fierce gun-battle in Myanmar.

For years, the NSCN has been using Myanmar as a base to carry out an offensive against Indian troops in Nagaland.

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